Self-Reinvention Through Resilience with Tannon Sweet

Ever wondered about the power your personal story holds? In a riveting conversation, we chat with Tannon Sweet, a young man from Missouri whose incredible journey from a runaway teen to a successful public speaker and film industry professional will surely leave you inspired. Tannon's story of survival, discovery, and reinvention is a testament to the power of resilience and the human spirit.

During our time with Tannon, we delve into his transformative journey, where he shares how he amplified his income from $20,000 to an impressive six figures. Tannon's financial success stems from a mindset shift. He emphasizes seeking guidance, learning from mentors, and the hunger for success. His story provides a metaphor for learning and personal growth, teaching you to fish for life's answers.

Explore Tannon's journey: Walmart to full film school scholarship. Persistence, boldness, and a passion for film led him to connect with industry giants. Learn how his public speaking skills amplify storytelling. Tannon's advice: prioritize a powerful message over video quality and embrace relatability for career success. Grab onto Tannon Sweet's inspiring tale of overcoming numerous challenges and finding his superpower in his story.

NOTABLE QUOTES
"I believe in the power of speaking." – Tannon
"Creators—a singer, a songwriter or a graphic design artist or a cinematographer or a videographer—are great at their craft, but what they don't understand is people." – Tannon
"I was trying so hard to be someone that I thought everyone wanted me to be." – Tannon
"They don't have to be directly in the shoes that you've been in, but if they're above you, if they have some knowledge on something, take it. " – Tannon
"Valued knowledge over money, because knowledge is forever." – Tannon
"I learned how to build, I learned how to have relationships with individuals and it carries me." – Tannon
“You really have to think outside yourself if you want to find yourself." – Tannon
"Investing to learn comes around." – Philip
"Money is energy. You have to let it flow for it to actually come back." – Philip
"If we continue to consume knowledge and never actually using any of it, or never stop at some point and then take some action on that knowledge, we're just going to basically just keep learning for the sake of learning, and then we're still not going to get anywhere." – Philip
"We've worked and learned from really big names in the industry. And it was all because I opened up my mouth and let something be available to happen to me." – Tannon
"I understand film to a different dynamic and now I want to be the businessman who understands film and implements that and brings that into people's personal lives." – Tannon
"And public speaking, in a sense, I want to do it visually and I want to be able to help people publicly speak through cinematography, through film, and bring the average Joe like you or me the ability to tell our story like it's a Hollywood story." – Tannon
"Who’s to say that what you’ve been through alone wouldn’t change the lives of thousands of people?" – Tannon
"It’s not about the video quality as much as it is about having a good message." – Tannon
"Your story matters." – Tannon

RESOURCES
Tannon
Website: https://www.starseed.productions/ 
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@starseed.productions
Instagram: https://instagram.com/__tannon__ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tannon-sweet 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/starseedproductionsllc   

Philip
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions

Transcript

Philip Session: 0:15

Okay, what's going on, guys? This is Phillip Sessions, your public speaking coach, here today with Tannon Sweet. He is a guy that went from homeless a homeless fake Australian guy for 10 to 15 years and we're going to hear more about that story. But yes, he faked being Australian to creating a film industry, which maybe that played a little into why he's in the film industry. But we're really going to dive into his story here and about how he's used public speaking to help transform his life through the film industry. Tanan, I'm excited to have you on. Let's go ahead and start diving into who you are in this story. That's going to be really incredible. We're going to pull out tons of nuggets from.

Tannon Sweet: 1:05

Yeah, well, yeah, my name is Tanan. I'm 28 years old. I've been a resident of Missouri for the last five years, started my life in Florida, was adopted and I had a biological parents that I wasn't aware of. You know, my mom lost us at a really young age and I ended up having adopted parents come in, but I always remember it having a biological mom. So I started asking questions and things started getting heated. Things started not going so well at home and I ended up asking my biological grandmother, who I would see maybe once a year for my birthday, and I asked her about it and she just kept. She told me the truth. She got me a book, a yellow book from Ohio, and I looked at my mom in there and I called her and I'm 13. I'm like, hi, mom. She's like who is this? So I'm like, hi, mom, it's Tanan and I'm tired of living in Florida, I want to leave. And she said well, make your way up to me. That's the craziest thing you can say to someone who is 13 years old because you are giving them an approval in.

Tannon Sweet: 2:13

As a young teenager, I jumped on it. I was dealing with a lot of abuse in my own life and when I tried talking to people about it, no one would believe me. They were like because the person I was raised by. They were like oh you know, he's a good person, he's a good person, he would never lay his hands on you. And he did. But that's outside the point, because at this point I was just trying to get away from it. I didn't want to be the kid who was lying about being abused. I didn't want to have a name connected to it. So I came up with an alias and it took me a few months to get from Port Charlotte, florida, all the way up to Georgia. And it was the hardest time of my life. Everyone was just telling me I was a Caucasian male. I was a teenager. I needed to go back home to mommy and daddy. We lived in Southwest Florida, so everyone thinks you're rich when you live in Southwest Florida.

Tannon Sweet: 3:11

But I ended up meeting Australians at a McDonald's in Branson, georgia, and there was a bunch of them there. They were students and I'm still friends with them to this day and they ended up taking me in. I didn't have food, I didn't have anything, I didn't have anything to my name. I was a missing child. There's a missing persons report out on me and I ended up just staying with them. They ended up taking me in and a few months go down the line.

Tannon Sweet: 3:40

They're like you know, you should pretend to be one of us because you would just fit in. We're all Australian and people will talk to us when they hear our accents. They love us, they want to ask us every question. They buy us drinks, they'll take us to the stores, they'll take us out to dinner and to me I'm like wow, you know, that sounds like the dream life. Like you mean, I don't have to eat spam, I don't have to eat cosmic brownies, I want to buy me like a cheeseburger for McDonald's. That's huge, that's huge.

Tannon Sweet: 4:10

So I ended up learning how to do in Australian accent and I hit it down right. So I mean this is what it sounds like and it might be a bit rusty, but to most people who aren't educated, I could talk to them like this and say, hey, you know, hey, do you know any hostels around here? And they're like hostels and I'm like I'm sorry, mike, I'm from Australia. And they're like oh, wow, I love you, mate. And I would deal with some weird racist stereotype. Shrump off the Bobby and I'm like, ah yeah, that's so funny and they would love me, and then I'd find a place to crash for a night or two. They'd give me a few bucks, give me some smokes and I'd head out. And I did that all the way up until I got back to Ohio.

Tannon Sweet: 4:52

Up to Ohio and it took me three years, took me three years to get there, but I had a journey along the way. I hiked a little bit of the Appalachian while I was there and finally make it to my mom. And first day I'm there. You know you've been reported missing for the last few years, but they knew that you were trying to come up here, so we just got to take care of that and we did. And then she said let's get you up to the food stamp office.

Tannon Sweet: 5:18

First thing, first day I'm there, she said let's get you up to the food stamp office. So we got my ID, everything sorted out and I ended up getting a food stamp card and I found out that I had 10 other brothers and sisters and seven of them were living with her. Wow, and they were all at least almost 10 years younger than me. Each one of them at least 10 years. So there's 12 of us total and I have an older sister. I knew about my younger brother who lived with me in Florida. I knew about but my younger sister, dahlia, I don't know where she is, never heard from her, never talked to her, and then the rest of them were just strangers in this house.

Tannon Sweet: 6:02

My mom wanted me for the food stamp. She wasn't married, she had a bunch of child support stuff that she had collected and that's what she was living off of and I thought that kind of life was something because she seemed smart to me. You know, I'm almost 16 or 17 at this time and I'm like, wow, you know, she's got her shit figured out because she's got a house. She's got a house, something figured out that I don't have figured out. I tell her the Australian thing, thinking that she'll be like on board, and she's like, no, you can't do that. I'm gonna tell everyone. You know, you're not going to pretend that you're my son and that you're Australian, which was kind of bogus. You know, I didn't know how else to live. You know I had spent almost three years traveling doing that and I'm like, well, no, this is the way that things are now. So I ended up leaving shortly after, making some friends and pretending to be Australian for the next 10 to 15 years, you know, and I did it up until I met my wife. My wife actually met me when I was Australian and she called it one of the first days, you know. We became best friends. She was like you're not Australian and we ended up falling in love and I knew she knew something was up and I was terrified, because I never felt this way about someone. I did.

Tannon Sweet: 7:26

I go to Alaska out of all the places I could have. I lived in Anchorage for six, almost seven months. I worked at a place called Moose's Tooth, which is a bar, slash, pizzeria and Anchorage, and I lived in this little Harry Potter room under these someone's steps. And I found a room on Craigslist and just you know, it was a group of people living in this house who were from all different parts of the world. None of them were from Alaska, except for the landlord Lived there.

Tannon Sweet: 7:55

And then I realized, like you know, hey, this is the person I love. I have to figure out what I got to do, so I come back and we worked everything out and I had to come clean about it all and I had to stop having an accent and for a long time that was my identity, and it's not just about being an Australian, but it was also just having the identity of always needing someone or something to provide for me, being in a constant state of survival, because in this constant state of survival you can't live, you can't thrive, you can't grow, you're shrinking. And I would have those thoughts all the time when I was out on the road, because, I mean, I lived everywhere in between, made a bunch of different friends.

Tannon Sweet: 8:40

But it's funny that I have a publicist now, because I guarantee you that some of these friends are going to come across these podcasts, come across these television interviews. They're going to come across all of this stuff and they're going to be like no way, there is no way. And then they're going to message me all angry, or they're going to message me all funny, because there's a lot of people I didn't tell I didn't make a post, like hey, sorry guys, I was lying about everything. I tried leaving things on good terms and some people would find out and I would dip. So there's a little bit.

Philip Session: 9:21

Yeah, that's. I mean, that's a crazy journey, actually literally being homeless but then faking to be Australian, which that's really weird. To think that if you're just this American, that you're treated differently than if you're an Australian or a foreigner or anything. You create yourself to be different and then you stick out more, but then people want to support you more for that, but then you finally decide that you're going to get rid of that identity. Which man that's?

Philip Session: 9:52

There's a lot we could go into with that, even what that looks like and how you went through with that. But but I really want us to focus in on the fact that, as you mentioned this and we talk a little bit more offline about this but you're talking about now you're going to be doing like a TV show and you kind of gotten past all of this. Really just a scary time, really a sad time in life as well, where you're lonely. Now you're married, you're, you've built this business and everything in the film industry. So tell us about, like, where you're at now, because we got a lot of this like entry level, this journey where you're at. But where are you at now when it comes to business and life.

Tannon Sweet: 10:32

I am at the point where we have crew. I have people working underneath me. I don't even mean that derogatively, I mean like I have employees that I can hire on and that at their full rate. We're working on several different documentaries one called the King of Chicago, one called the Million Dollar Bar Game. I'm in a crazy place in life where what I was making me and my wife were making full time a few years ago to combined like we're passing that you know where. We thought you know 20 to $30,000 a year, but if two of us were doing $20 to $30,000 a year, we were living big time. That's crazy and we just hit over six figures. So we're very young, but we know what we're doing, we have a passion towards what we're doing and we just haven't stopped.

Tannon Sweet: 11:33

I got in a film school by asking. I Knew that I had to take care of warrants from driving without a license all these years To get a GED, because I left home when I was 13. I Didn't have anything. I didn't have anything but my ID, and I didn't even like my ID because I was going by someone else. I didn't have an identity whatsoever. So to think that now I'm in the film industry, one of the only Production companies out here in the Midwest, and I know a bunch of others. My friends have ones but our aim here is Disney. Our aim here is HBO. You know when's the last time you heard one like that?

Tannon Sweet: 12:21

Yeah, and it's dreamable now because you know we have almost a hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment. Now I never thought I'd have a cool Blogging camera that's almost a thousand dollars sitting on my desk recording what I'm doing. The three thousand dollar laptop. My wife has. A thousand dollar Mac set up. We have a ten thousand dollar camera just sitting right here in front of me over on the side.

Tannon Sweet: 12:47

I have a drone behind me and I have moments, I have days where I'm just how did all of this happen? But it hits me because I didn't have an identity that entire time. When you're 13, you're just figuring out who you are. So it's like that was paused that entire time in my life until I was like 25 and it was like hold on. I think I like film and that's why I believe in the power of speaking, because a lot of these individuals are starving artists and I wanted to break that mold, because everyone that I've run into out here, oh, and most of the places in the world, they're starving artists. They are die hard at what they do, but they do not know what it takes to get them in the rooms that they need to go there. Different levels of creators, whether it's a singer, as a songwriter or a graphic design artist or a cinematographer or a videographer. They are great at their craft, but what they don't understand is people, and that's my connection, that's my in-between.

Tannon Sweet: 13:57

While I'm great at doing video, I'd rather share my vision with someone who loves loves video, because I'm great at it, but who also has an eye for cinema, and then I'm connecting them to doing what they want to do and they're higher up life, which is crazy to me, because I'm like, wow, I just hired someone on for $1,200 for like five hours and His lighting guy that he wanted it was $750, that's $2,000 right there, and they're only gonna be here for a few hours. But it was dream, it was doable. I Never had a. I never thought I'd have a life where I could do these things. And it comes fast.

Philip Session: 15:28

It comes fast if you put the work in yeah, and so what are some of those changes that you did in order to Create this new life, if you will? From where you were, where you didn't have that identity, to where you were making you only $20,000 or $30,000 with a combined household income. Of that to now you're You're throwing out. Yeah, that's a lot of money to throw out in one individual day and I'm sure it's not every single day that you're doing that but still like to throw out that kind of money for Only a few hours, like what was that Change that happened to allow you to get to this spot?

Tannon Sweet: 16:05

It's funny because of how quickly those changes come, how quickly those changes happen, because Six months ago I wouldn't have been able to answer this question. I wouldn't even been able to tell you what it was that was going to carry us over that premise of hitting six figures. I wouldn't have told you that I Was trying so hard to be someone that I thought everyone wanted me to be. I thought I needed to be, to be on the level of millionaires, and I was trying to influence myself to be someone on that level. But the truth of the matter is that you have to get rid of the ego and you have to learn how to truly listen when someone who does. They don't have to be directly in the shoes that you've been in, but if they're above you, if they have some knowledge on something, take it. Take it because you put, you get thrown into their corner. Whether they're a cinematographer or not, you get thrown into their corner. You get thrown into their corner of people and then you gain and I never thought I'd be someone who valued their knowledge, valued knowledge over Money, because that knowledge is forever. It's like the antinom are saying Teach a man to fish, versus teach giving him a fish. You know, just don't give me a fish for a day, because you know that takes me that one day. And then maybe I burnt out a connection, whereas if I learned how to fish, I learned how to build, I Learn how to have relationships with individuals and it carries me. So I guess it all in all in all it's getting rid of the ego. Yeah, bringing on a mentor, that sounds very just stereotypical, but you have to be sure you are who you want to be, or you're figuring out who you want to be and you have to look at yourself from a different perspective. Or hey, you know, what would someone think, what would I think of someone if they were doing this? And you really have to think outside yourself if you want to find yourself.

Philip Session: 18:13

Yeah, man, that's really cool and I really never thought about that analogy that way before I've. Also, I've always thought of it like hey, do I teach somebody how to fish so they can be self-sufficient, or do I just give them a fish? But never thought about it from the other way. Do I just take the fish from somebody that's Willing to teach me, or do I actually allow them to teach me so I can learn to fish myself, which is such an important thing and I found in my own personal life as well. Like you were, you started investing in the knowledge Rather than just trying to take or just like having to pay somebody they're gonna do this for me and be done like. You're investing to learn that it comes around, anyways. And so you drop in that ego, you allowing yourself to learn from people, whether it's through mentorship, unpaid or paid, and you end up getting more money because of that. And it's just, it's amazing how that works when you think I need to hold on to all this money, but as you hold on to it, it can't go anywhere. You're suffocating it.

Philip Session: 19:14

And Grant Cardone talks about like yeah, I think it's. Grant Cardone talks about like you know Money is energy. You know, money has to flow. You have to let it flow for it actually to come back and everything, and so that's something that's really difficult for us to think about, and For those that are starting in business as well.

Philip Session: 19:33

Something else that's difficult to think about like you were going to mentors, you were going to people to learn that had those skills that you wanted to learn, and when we're first getting started, we think we need to be doing it all ourselves. We need to figure it all out ourselves. We're gonna be this imposter if we simply Don't. If we don't know something. We're an imposter. If we go to somebody ask for help, we're an imposter. But the funny thing is what I've noticed, at least, is the most successful people are always learning from somebody else. They're always doing something to put themselves out of their comfort zone. They're not staying in their own bubble and saying, well, I know everything or I can only do this because this is all I know. They're pushing that boundary to learn more and Grow and put the right people in their corner to help them move forward.

Tannon Sweet: 20:21

Right, I think that's powerful. And going back to that metaphor of teaching a man to fish, you said do I take the fish and then learn how to fish? No, you just take the fish. I mean, you don't take the fish, you just learn because you, you're hungry, mm-hmm, you're ready, and that's gonna be the quickest way you learn how to throw that spear into the water, the quickest way that you learn how to put the bait on the hook. You're hungry, you have go, you're driven. And If someone were able to apply, if it was applicable to hey, you know, when I'm hungry, I get up and I go get some food.

Tannon Sweet: 21:03

People look at that very simply, very Subconsciously, and then it's like hey, you know, you need to make a thousand dollars by Friday. Oh man, I don't know how I'm gonna do that. You sure this hell knew how to get up to the fridge Because you knew that there was food there. So if you can change your mindset to, I know that this is out there. Yeah, I know that that food is out there, I'm gonna get up and go for it.

Tannon Sweet: 21:32

We don't think about that process. We literally walk Some consciously. We just literally walk to the fridge and we grab what we want out. We make it, whether it's a sandwich, whether it's a microwavable meal, we walk through whatever steps. We read the package, just in case we have to split the vent open. Are we broil or boil the broccoli? We steam the broccoli, we turn the oven on, we put it at a specific degree. It's so technical. Or if I wanted to whip up a grilled cheese, you know that's a few different ingredients. If I want to be fancy, throwing in garlic and throwing in a few different things with some tomato soup, I'm doing multiple things at once.

Tannon Sweet: 22:11

Oh, now, people don't think about this method. Whenever they're building a business, they see it as a dead end because they don't think that they've ever done it. They've never made a grilled cheese that day until they made a grilled cheese that specific day. And there's a bunch of other people who are out here teaching hey, this is some of the stuff that you have to do when you don't know how to like a mentor, like, let's just say, google, for example, if I don't know how to try to go so deep into this food analogy, but when you don't know how to cook this popcorn chicken that you want, what do you? Do you go on Google? Hey, how do I cook this? You just went to a mentor, but it was a subconscious mentor and it was just something you could click on like this. You didn't have to have a conversation with anyone you're introverted, whatever but you had that conversation and you found the knowledge that you needed and it didn't take much and that, in this metaphor, would be the mentor and then you were able to go do what you needed to do.

Tannon Sweet: 23:17

We don't all automatically know how to cook mashed potatoes up or make a meatloaf. We don't know where the breadcrumbs go. We don't know if there's ketchup involved. We don't know what we're doing. We don't know what degree to set it to or how long to set it. We don't know what the foil you have to put over it. And you know someone's right going to watch this and be like, wow, this guy's really talking about food. I'm really hungry, I'm getting a little bit hungry. But I think it's a good metaphor too that a lot of people don't subconsciously think about it. It's like you went as elaborate as making your dinner that night. Whether you ordered it out, you had to think about what it was. You had to review, you had to Google some stuff If you made it at home, to how to cook it. How do I know if it's done? You asked all the right questions and you found the answers that you needed. And if people could apply this to a business or being an entrepreneur, imagine the success rate. You go in hungry, yeah.

Philip Session: 24:17

And then you don't over and gorge yourself because, just like with food, if you just keep consuming, consuming, consuming also, you're going to get lethargic and you can't move anymore and you feel like crap. And it's really the same way when it comes to consuming knowledge. If we continue to consume knowledge and never actually using any of it, or never stop at some point and then take some action on that knowledge, we're just going to, we're going to basically just keep learning for the sake of learning, and then we're still not going to get anywhere. So it's kind of the same thing with the food, Like you don't want to eat too much, you want to eat to get full, to get satiated, and then move on and use that energy to help you move forward till the next meal, I guess. And so the same thing with your knowledge Get the knowledge you need and then go apply it. But too many people want to sit there and just absorb, absorb, absorb, read, read, read, listen, listen, listen. But they never take that action.

Tannon Sweet: 25:13

Yeah, it's true, because if you sat there and read the whole direction, then you're going to end up with a different recipe. Yeah, but if you take what little bit you learn and you can apply it, then you're going to have more results. It's taking that step forward where people will feel stuck if they absorb too much or they get one wrong opinion about something, one wrong opinion on how to do it from a subreddit like a tweet, and they're like, oh, I guess I shouldn't do it this way, and then they just backlock.

Philip Session: 25:40

Yeah.

Tannon Sweet: 25:41

And then they're right back where they started.

Philip Session: 25:44

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So let's take a little bit of a shift here and we've kind of brought up this whole thing how, like, public speaking has helped you in business. I'm curious, how has it helped you? Because I run into a lot of business owners that feel like, oh, public speaking doesn't really help me out. But if you don't know how to speak, if you can't communicate your message, it's kind of difficult. Or communicate what it is, that your product or services, what your business does, and who it helps and how it helps them. It's kind of difficult to make a business grow. So how has public speaking helped your business out specifically?

Tannon Sweet: 26:21

So it's more on the side. I'm just now getting into my public speaking life, but I believe it would be. It's a different horse or it's a different breed, but it's still a horse. It's just speaking in general. Our business up until this point, even now, has been 100% word of mouth. That's speaking. That's because of the relationships, that's because I talked out loud, I said specific things, I influenced specific people to feel a specific way.

Tannon Sweet: 26:53

I got into film school by asking. I didn't. When I found out. I found out the school was going to cost $200,000. And I'm working at Walmart sucking shelves. You know, I'm like I had given up. You know delivering pizzas and I'm like, you know, I don't know what to do with this. I don't know what to think. $200,000. I don't have that. And then I just heard that little voice okay, you know, you made it this far. You need to figure out what you need to do.

Tannon Sweet: 27:21

So I look up the school and I'm like well, who's the founder of this school? Oh, wow, the founder is still alive. So let me look him up and then let me type in his name plus contact and a website. I'm not plugging. I love the CEO of this business, but it's not a plug, it was rocket reach. And I use this website and I get a free trial. I can look up five different names. And I look up the president of the film school and bam, I get his personal phone number and I'm like, well, maybe it might be an office number. So I go to text it just to see if it pops up blue, pops up green. Just put the number in, pops up blue. So I'm like, well, either the numbers wrong or the numbers right, and it's like nine or 10 at night. I'm going to shoot my shot. Hi, my name is Tannen, this is who I am, this is what I've been through, this is what I want to do and this is what's stopping me. I hope we can make something work. I wasn't expecting anything free.

Tannon Sweet: 28:19

He got back to me the next day. He's gone, blown away. No one's ever reached out to me. No one's ever, you know, talked to me like this. I didn't talk to him aggressively or anything. I showed him a little bit of my work, but it had a lot more to do with he sees talented people every single day.

Tannon Sweet: 28:34

It was what I said that affected him. It was my ability to be bold enough to speak whether it was perfect or not and guarantee it wasn't perfect. I spoke to him and it moved him because it was a simple message, simple story. I didn't have to be crazy about it, I didn't have to spin it a bunch of different ways, it didn't have to be super intricate. I gave him the problem and I was helping him to come to me with the solution. Okay, what can we do about this? You know, let's partner up. I told you my life story and I know that you're moved. What can we do together about this Full scholarship? A month and a half later, the school calls me up and they're like hey, just so, you know, the president signed off on a full scholarship and I got to meet him face to face. One of my friends, stephanie he's a mentor of mine. She's a producer for Netflix, pbs. It's really cool.

Tannon Sweet: 29:34

So I've been able to connect with some really big names in the film world. We've been taught from the same people who you know shot Titanic. We worked on James Cameron's avatar. We've worked with really big names in the industry and learned from really big names in the industry. And it was all because I opened up my mouth and let something be available to happen to me, because if I didn't speak, if I didn't act upon that technical, like tactical impulse, then I wouldn't be where I am. And now I have like a full legion to film people. I understand film to a different dynamic and now I want to be the businessman who understands film and implement that and bring that into people's personal lives.

Tannon Sweet: 30:24

So I use that and we live in a town like our county is 60,000 people, you know it's a really big rural area. We live in a really small town called Troy, missouri, and every single thing that I've done has been word of mouth and I realized that this little town. When I told them it was going to cost $1,000 for a photo shoot, they were like, hey, no way, buster, hmm, got to find somewhere else to do that stuff. So like, maybe they got a point. So I start branching out and start making connections and we sign our first $950 a month client Lockham, in for two years and they're still with us. They're our rider dice. Our price has gone up a lot since then but our price for them will never go up just because they displayed loyalty when we needed it.

Tannon Sweet: 31:17

And they told people hey, you know, this guy's really good at doing this. This guy is really good at helping tell your story and that was something we wanted to implement. And public speaking, in a sense, I want to do it visually and I want to be able to help people publicly speak through cinematography, through film, and bring the average Joe like you or me the ability to tell our story like it's a Hollywood story. Because before we had this sit down, had this conversation, before anyone heard this conversation, you probably thought I had an average life. I probably think I don't know anything about your life.

Tannon Sweet: 32:01

I don't know anything beyond what you do currently. I don't know what you've been through, but who's to say that's not important? Who's to say that what you've been through alone wouldn't change the lives of thousands of people? They're like hey, I can relate to that too. Maybe public speaking is what I need to get into. Or for me, it's the creators. Hey, I really want to do graphic design and I was going to go to Los Angeles to do it, but this person out here is starting a film company. That means it's coming out here. So maybe I'll stay here and try to find a job. Cool, let me help you find a job, even if it's not for me.

Philip Session: 32:43

Yeah, you know. Yeah, man, that's incredible. And so, with you saying that, I'm curious because obviously, on the speaking side, telling your story is what helps you relate with your audience that you're speaking to. But from a cinematography perspective, what are some maybe small things that people can do, especially if maybe they're only on a phone? Perhaps they can help with telling that story visually? That's really interesting to me. What are some things that we could possibly do if we don't have all the technical capability like you or the nice fancy equipment? What are some little things maybe we can do to help spice up, to share more of our story?

Tannon Sweet: 33:26

For one being prepared. There is apps that you can find on the App Store that are teleprompters and it opens up a camera and most of us have high definition cameras, whether it's on our phones or not. I have an iPhone 15. And it's not the Pro Max, it's just the Pro, and I can use this front camera and there's teleprompter apps where I can type something up here at the bottom of it and I can hit play and it'll read it off real slow.

Tannon Sweet: 33:55

And it's what all of these influencers do, these people you see walking and talking at the same time. It's just popping up because you're like, wow, they got so much energy, they got so much drive. They're moving their hands, they're talking and walking at the same time. I could never be that person. That's one good example.

Tannon Sweet: 34:14

I think another good point to bring up is you do not have to have an $80,000 camera or a $10,000 camera to do this. If you want to invest and you want to be different and you want to invest into a camera, there is something called a Sony FX3. Now I bring up this specific model because a movie was just released called the Creator and it's a crazy like space movie and it was shot. The entire movie was shot on a $4,000 camera. The visual effects will blow your mind. The cinematography like the way that the light falls on someone, all the camera stuff would blow your mind. How much of a budget did you think that this they had? When I tell you that they shot on a $4,000 camera, how much of a budget do you think they had? I?

Philip Session: 35:05

have no clue. I'm going to guess like $20,000, $30,000, $40,000.

Tannon Sweet: 35:11

I mean $80 million, oh my gosh, yeah, denzel Washington's son, john Washington. He is one of the main people in it, but the cinematographers and director they wanted to prove to someone, prove to everyone, that it does not have to be one of these $100,000 cameras. You can shoot it on a $4,000 camera. Similarly, you can shoot everything that you need on your phone. There's things called cinematic mode. There's lighting, things that you can focus on. It's really about reading the manual. You're like well, you know I don't have a high quality camera. Why don't you Google or YouTube, use that as a mentor? What can I do to make my iPhone look more cinematic? What can I do? And it's going to say hey, what iPhone do you have? Well, I got the iPhone 14 Pro Max. These are all the things that you can do. These are the kind of lights that you should buy, and it'll show you maps, It'll show you graphs of how you should lay out specific lights that cost maybe 10, 15 bucks on Amazon. Or look what I have my camera body is $600 right here and the lens on it is $400. The lenses hold a lot more value. I got a little bracket here on my desk.

Tannon Sweet: 36:38

It doesn't because I could be shooting on my $10,000 camera. I could have that set up and it could be like super in your face 6K, 8k and you're just like, wow, this is mind blowing, but why? I just want to prove that anything can be done. Whether my camera looks like this or whether my camera looks like this, my story didn't change. Whether I told you that story on this camera or if I told you it on this camera, it didn't change.

Tannon Sweet: 37:18

But which one are you going to pay better attention to? Which one are you going to think about before you? You're going to double think about passing it up. Before you actually just scroll past it, you're going to see high quality and you're like, well, how did they do that? You know what?

Tannon Sweet: 37:35

Most of what I'm doing is lighting and composition, and one of the things that's catching your eye subconsciously maybe that you've brought to your conscious is this thing behind me. That's just a pulverizing rainbow spectrum of colors and it's just hanging out behind me, but it's one of the things that keeps the viewer locked in. The sacred. Geometry is just one of those things. It gives someone something to look at. It gives them an interesting picture. So you don't have to have the fancy iPhone because there's people shooting on a $4,000 camera with an $80 million budget, and I encourage you to go watch it after this, like I promise you, you will be blown away. If you can't find it, I will give you a site to use. It might be illegal, but you'll be filming it, watching it in HD Nice.

Philip Session: 38:30

Wow, that's incredible. So just to kind of get your thoughts here. So obviously there's an importance of having good, high quality video, but if you had to choose over a good, high quality video and, I guess, a great message, if you will like which one would you say is more important?

Tannon Sweet: 38:52

Your message, because you don't have to choose between good, high quality video and a message when almost every phone that you have unless you have a Nokia or one of the Razer flip phones you're going to get pretty dang good clarity. Pick up a $10 mic on Amazon, buy one of these teleprompt apps or just download the teleprompt app. Most of the time it's not free. Most of the time it's free, you can buy the premium upgrades and the updates for like $2.99 and then you have a lifetime membership and the power of being able if you are not a natural speaker, the power of being able to do what they do on the news, where they deliver the messages or the actors deliver the messages that they do is the ability to. It's the ability to rehearse. It's the ability to see what they are going to say. Whereas me, right then was a great example of a brain fart, where I'm just talking, I'm spewing everything out. My brain had to recollect for a moment. I'm good at speaking because I've been able to hold the conversation with you without any arms or you know, diving in and just like along spaces and just staying on the same page as you.

Tannon Sweet: 40:10

Not everyone's like that. I'm not saying I'm the best, because there's probably are we going to be like a coach who watches this and he's going to be like Nope, that was bad, that was bad. He's going to judge all of my errors, just like when I watch someone's video content, it's not my ego, I swear to God. I'm just like hey, why, why? Why did their videographer do this? Why did he get so close? I can see the wrinkles on their forehead. Why did he get so close to them? This doesn't make sense. Why did he do such a low angle? Why didn't he stabilize the shot? You know everyone's going to have something to say.

Philip Session: 40:44

Yeah, oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I always joke with people that, hey, if you're not paying me, I'm not judging you.

Philip Session: 40:50

But yeah, I do, I do pay attention to those things and look out and see like, okay, is that something I do?

Philip Session: 40:55

And it's more to compare back to me or to be able to use that as an example when I go to educate other people.

Philip Session: 41:01

So I'm sure that's the same thing that you're doing. You're trying to make sure you keep an eye for that cinematography, that videography and everything and be able to go teach those lessons later to people that are learning under you, that you're mentoring and everything. So it's not about necessarily that you're trying to judge somebody because they're not as good as you or they could be better or whatever, but it's more just you're keeping an eye on that and this is something that you just naturally think about all the time. So it's hard to really shut that off for sure. So, but I appreciate you sharing that and yeah, of course I agree with you there that the message is so much more important and I always tell people as well that, like, if you have bad audio but you have a great message, people are still going to listen, as long as you have that credibility. Now, if you're kind of a no name and you have bad audio, bad video, people are just going to wait and go on to the next thing.

Philip Session: 41:58

So you do want to make sure your audio and video are at least at par. You know they're, they're not terrible. But yeah, you don't have to go all out and have the super expensive equipment, super expensive mics and cameras and everything like that. Just have something that's going to give good quality that people can watch and not cringe as they're watching or listening to. And then as long as that message is strong, people are going to listen into that as well.

Philip Session: 42:25

And the caveat to that is, if you're an Andy Frazella and Ed Milet some of these big names and you always deliver good messages, and you happen to have a video or audio that is a little bit below subpar, it's not quite as good, people may still listen to you anyways because they know you have a good message. But until you build up that reputation, it's hard to overcome that bad audio and video for sure. So you do need to have something that's adequate, which, like you said, tannen, your phone can do that perfectly fine. We've already spent the thousand twelve hundred fifteen hundred dollars, whatever they cost these days, for that phone. Why not utilize it if you don't have the budget to go and get the nicer equipment.

Tannon Sweet: 43:09

You don't need to.

Tannon Sweet: 43:10

There's so many people out here, Like even Sony. They have awards every year. They have a film competition every single year where the person shoots on a camera and the award's like a ten thousand dollar, twenty thousand dollar award and you shoot the entire film on your camera, on your phone camera. You just utilize what you have and they encourage that. And I agree it's not about the video quality as much as it is about having a good message, because people seek one of two things they seek validation, and those are people you generally want to stay away from. And then there's people who seek relatability. How can they relate to you, how can they relate to your story? How can they relate to how you feel? What can they do? Do you want to validate their emotions or do you want to relate to their emotions? I mean, even if you think about the word, you know validation you're trying to validate. It's the process of validating something where relatability that comes naturally. If you're not full of shit, it comes naturally.

Philip Session: 44:21

Yeah.

Tannon Sweet: 44:22

You know, and I spent a lot of time, a long time, realizing that and knowing that that was the difference, because I wanted validation from everyone. I wanted to be the best friend, the Australian that everyone loved, and I lacked her relatability and everyone knew me on a surface level. So every relationship I had up until I mean, I could say, my wife, for the last five years I've had a great relationship with her, we've dug in and but outside of that, I'd say in the last year or so, I've really been able to come into who I am and how I define myself. And I'd say in the last few months, I mean, even that's evolved, that's changed. And who knows, we might hop on another podcast here in a year and I'd be like, hey bro, you'll never guess where I'm at now. You know.

Philip Session: 45:12

I'm filming for.

Tannon Sweet: 45:13

Disney. Yeah, I don't want to film for Disney. I want to be bigger than those dudes, gotcha, okay.

Philip Session: 45:20

I've had a mention at the beginning that that was kind of your goal to do some work for them. Okay, hey.

Tannon Sweet: 45:25

I like that even more. I don't want to work, for it's not about working under anyone with them or whatever.

Tannon Sweet: 45:33

So I'm a Christian man and that's a newfound faith in the last few years, and my goal is to bring faith to the forefront of the film industry. That doesn't mean every movie that I'm creating is talking about God, but it has God in mind. Yeah, you know when you if? I'm not sure if you're a religious person, I am but when you read the Bible, when was it? It was Saul, the man with the bald head, who was back, mocked up by children who were laughing at his bald head. And what did God do? God sends two bears to go down there and massacre, destroy, eat, tear up all of those children. That's a cra zy, bizarre thing to bring up, but it goes to show you that it's in the Bible. The story of Cain and Abel is in the Bible. That is an example of murder. The story of Babylon is in the Bible and how it fell and that was the place of sin, and it talks about these things because sin exists. We live in a world where that happens. We live on perfect lives because he lived a perfect life and we can atone for that. So I want to create an industry that puts God in the forefront. I am not the CEO of my business God is. I'm the operations guy, I am the CEO who does the FaceTime yeah, physically. But when you sign a contract with God, which a spiritual mentor of mine told me to do make a contract with God, put him in charge of everything, let him lead you. It was the smartest thing we've done and I have it saved on my phone and it really changes the perspective on things because it's like, my life, since I've had God in my relationships, has dramatically changed because there's so much more intention and the amount of joy I feel when I find out that I'm talking to a brother or a sister or a faith. Whether you call it source, whatever you call it, you know it's God and you can look at it but 20 different ways. Now, disney they don't talk about it. You know Harry Potter, warner Bros they don't talk about it. We have real lives. I'm tired of watching stories about dragons. I love Harry Potter. I have a Harry Potter tattoo. I love Game of Thrones. I have a Game of Thrones tattoo. I mean, that was a different life. I swear to God.

Tannon Sweet: 48:12

But the point is, is where's the real late ability in that? People are losing the ability to relate because everyone's giving them stories about where they're kind of relatable. But hey, it's a world that's on fire and there's dragons and zombies, but these characters are relatable and that's what gets people through. They're like, hey, you know what I feel like I can relate to this, this Rick walking dead zombie character, because he's a badass, he's real American, I'm a real American. There's the real late ability. Now I want to bring the real late ability back in with God and knowing that life's not going to be perfect all the time. But that's not why we have faith. We don't have faith only when it suits us. You have to have faith through it all or there's no point. Sorry for that spiel.

Philip Session: 49:12

But no, no, I like it. No, you're exactly right and I'm glad you brought that up, because, well, first of all, I thought maybe you were wanting to start working in some way, shape or form with these different bigger companies. That's awesome that you're trying to bring that to the forefront, because we're seeing the way that the industry is going and I know we could go down a tangent. We want, with some of these bigger names and what they're doing, to push these different agendas and everything, and I like that. You're trying to bring God to the forefront of all of this, or at least Christian values to the forefront, because, at the end of the day, I really feel that most people live by these Christian core values, whether they call them Christian core values or not, I believe that they still do. Are these principles behind it?

Philip Session: 49:59

But they may try and call it something different or it's from somewhere else or whatever, but that's really cool to see that you're doing that, and so, with that, what I like to ask at the end of every podcast episode is what's that one message that you would share for the rest of your life? So I'm going to ask that now, like what is that one message that you would share for the rest of your life. If you, if you can only share one more or one message for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Tannon Sweet: 50:28

Your story matters. Your story, your individual story. Whether you're sitting on the couch listening to your parents argue, or you're having a fight with your wife, or you're just having a dispute over something and you're working on nine to five minutes no longer suiting you, your story matters, and if you are not exactly where you want to be, don't waste another second. As someone who has lived on the impulse of, I cannot stand to do this for another second. I cannot stand to be here for another second. I'm going to go somewhere else. I can promise you that everything is going to be okay. Don't worry about bills every day. Don't worry about rent every day. Focus on what makes you happy and the success will follow. That way of life will follow. Whatever is meant to happen with whatever you are creating is just going to unfold anyways, and the longer you try to fight it, the more regret you're going to have at the end of your life, and that's not something I recommend. Your story matters.

Tannon Sweet: 51:46

Don't be afraid to live your story, because we do not want to be the grandparents when our grandkids ask us? God forbid that they do. I hope they do. But this time and date and technology, when our grandkids circle around us and we're dying one day, do we want to tell them the story of how we were afraid to quit that nine to five or what? We stayed at it and do we know? We got to go vacation and Costa Rica once and it was really nice, got to get some PTO. Or do you want to tell them I quit my job because it was making me unhappy and I traveled to the world and I figured it out as I went, because that is what I do in human nature? Do you want to be able to tell them that you lived or do you want to tell them that you forgot to and you have all this regret?

Philip Session: 52:38

Your story matters. All right, that's great and I agree with you. That story does matter. And so for you in the audience, if you are afraid to share your story, realize that your story is what relates you with those people that are just like you, just one step behind you, and so, on stage, realize that your story is your superpower. Atenin, I appreciate you coming on man and sharing all this information, talk about your journey and everything and really opening up to us and we got into some really deep things. But I think it's great information that we all need to think about and really reflect on our lives. And if people want to get in touch with you and hear more about what you got going on or just kind of follow your journey, where's the best place for them to reach out?

Tannon Sweet: 53:27

I am like a millennial. I am always on Facebook, so that's going to be the best way you can follow us on Instagram, which is starseedproductions. My personal Instagram is underscore underscore, underscore Tannen underscore, underscore, underscore, because there's not many Tannins and I wanted to give myself a little bit of a attention there. So nice being connected with me Instagram. You can connect with us on our Facebook page. I'd love to talk with more people and just help them get motivated into living their life, especially if it's in the film industry. If you think this is something that you want to do and you don't know how to do it and you live out this way, reach out and let's see if we can find you a place and see if we can find you a job and get you closer to what you're meant to be doing. It doesn't mean you're not going to struggle, but it does mean that you're going to be on your way. You're taking a step forward.

Philip Session: 54:33

That's great. Well, tannen, thanks again for coming on the podcast and sharing all that you did with us.

Tannon Sweet: 54:40

Absolutely. It was great talking with you.